Build season for our team ended with Stop Build Day yesterday! The team gathered at the workshop for a special extended workshop session, where we made some final touches to the robot and celebrated the end of the build season with cake (Thanks Mrs. Nagg!). Team members and mentors voted on a name for our robot (“Beatrice”) and had a chance to sign their names on the robot before bagging and tagging it until our competition in March.

Build Season has officially begun! Today, our team met up for the annual FIRST® Robotics Competition Kickoff, where teams from all over the world watch the reveal of the year’s game challenge. A select few of our members attended the local kickoff event at the A.W. Beattie Career Center in Allison Park, PA to watch the stream and pick up the team’s Kit of Parts, while the majority of the team opted to meet at the high school for viewing and discussion.

After the game reveal stream ended, the members from the event returned to the high school, allowing team discussion and planning to begin. Team members collaborated to determine what the team’s robot was going to focus on this year, and create preliminary designs based on the plan. Discussion lasted well into the afternoon, with the team eventually coming to a consensus that this year’s robot should focus on collecting gears to deliver to the center ‘airship’ (attached is an explanation of this year’s game).

Overall, kickoff was a large success this year, with the team being able to draw up a preliminary plan for this year’s robot and begin drawing up possible designs. The team members had a blast, with team members socializing with each other and the team mentors, and the event-attending members being able to network with other teams at the regional kickoff. We look forward to build season and the Greater Pittsburgh Regional this March!

Today, our team conducted our annual workshop safety training night at 7 PM at the FRobotics Workshop. This workshop training is required annually for all members in order to participate in the team’s workshop nights during the build season. We had a large turnout, with a majority of the team’s members and mentors in attendance to learn about the tools in the workshop, how to operate them, and workshop safety techniques. Experienced team members and mentors hosted individual stations, where they demonstrated their respective tool, how to operate it safely, and explained what it is used for. Stations included the soldering iron, the hacksaw, the drill press, and the sanding machine, among others. Overall, it was a very successful night, with team members getting the opportunity to get the workshop training they need and a chance to get to know and socialize with fellow team members and mentors afterward. The team is eagerly anticipating the start of the build season in two months!

FIRST Robotics Team 4150 “FRobotics” is Franklin Regional Senior High’s very own FIRST Robotics Competition (FRC) team. FIRST® (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) is a global nonprofit organization dedicated to promoting STEM through its four K-12 robotics competitions – FIRST Lego League Jr. (FLL Jr.), FIRST Lego League (FLL), FIRST Tech Challenge (FTC), and the one our team participates in, the FIRST Robotics Competition, or FRC.

The students on our team learn invaluable skills by participating in FRC.

FRC is a real world high school robotics competition where students are given an objective to build a functioning robot that must meet specific requirements while being able to accomplish multiple tasks. We are totally responsible to develop and manage a budget, design and build a robot, while gaining invaluable analytical and leadership skills related to engineering, software development, and business.

For further information on FIRST® and FRC®, check out the FRC Penultimate Manual here.

FRobotics is open to anyone and everyone in FRHS. No matter what you can or cannot do, you are a valuable member of the team.

Organization and Communication

Our team is divided into subteams, each of which do different tasks. Each subteam is essential to the functioning of FRobotics as a whole.

Team Support and Communications – Manages the team’s communications, public relations, branding, and administration.

Communication

Outreach

Relations

Team Development

Technology

Awards and Media/Branding

Robot Build and Design – Actually designs and builds the robot.

Build

Wiring

Programming

CAD

Safety

Strategy and Scouting

Sponsors and Finance – Gets money for us to build the robot and run the team.

Fundraising

Marketing

Finance

Expectations of Team Members

We expect that all team members are active within the team and helping out to the best of their ability.

We expect you to participate on the team – You signed up for it and agreed to make the time commitment.

We will be holding fundraising and outreach events – you will be expected to attend most if you can.

You will also be expected to attend at least 60% of all team meetings and/or team training sessions.

You must be an active member (attend meetings, workshop, training and contribute) to be allowed to attend competition.